


heart made of metal, but i still make you happy

by leothequeenn



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Cashton, College AU, M/M, Muke - Freeform, ai!ashton, also mikey works with computers lol, android!ashton, i guess, lol, robot!ashton, robot!au, robotics!calum, theres like a little cashton but then a lot of cashton at the end, this is set like...in the future
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-09
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-02-28 17:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2741684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leothequeenn/pseuds/leothequeenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robotics is hard, but it makes it even harder whenever you get attached to your own finals project and refuse to give it up. Robotics is also very, very hard whenever your friends know something you don't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. My Name is Ashton

**Author's Note:**

> haha okay so I had this idea that i drew and it started with "haha ashton's initials without his middle name are AI" and then i was like "oHYMGDO" and so this is how this happened. all because i was stupid and was like "AHAH AI AU". this is kind of set in the near future but i feel like i need to imply that in future chapters. enjoy xx

As Calum made his way out of the bricked building, his shoes squeaking against the concrete since some girl accidentally spilled water on him, he made it clear that he had a scowl on his face. He sighed, making his way toward the black car and the closer he came to it, Calum knew what his two friends were doing before he even stepped foot into the vehicle. And he managed to keep that scowl as he opened up the car door, settling for “Thanks for picking me up--” but he was soon interrupted by Michelene muttering out a cuss word directed toward Luke, and why did Calum even try and say thank you? “Alright guys, enough with the bickering. Just get me off campus, okay?” Calum muttered as he climbed into the backseat of the car. He didn’t want to know why they were bickering, nor did he ever want to know how he could know before even listening to it.

“We weren’t bickering.” Michelene, also known as Mikey, repeated with a scowl on her face as she swatted her boyfriend’s chest and Luke pretended to be hurt.

“We were just having a little chat.” The blond said and Calum rolled his eyes, leaning back into the seat even if he was still a little uncomfortable. It was a little _too_ clean back there and Calum wasn’t as used to it as he was with Mikey’s car -- which, now that he thought about it, was a total mess, with papers and random computer wires, clothes and shoes that Michael would just throw back in the back since she’d normally have Calum riding shotgun with her. But Luke’s car was obviously owned by his mother, and while there were a few wrappers and shoes laying around, nothing too extreme (because finding opened condom wrappers in the back of Mikey’s Mustang was a _bit_ extreme) was out in the open and Calum didn’t know if that pleased him or not.

“Whatever, just get my ass home so I can work.”

“No relaxing?” Mikey asked, looking back at the black-haired boy. “But I’m gonna be staying there with you, and either way, we’re gonna party.”

Calum was not in the mood for a party, he was having a rough day. Well, he was already having a rough day because first the vending machine ran out of his favorite soda, and while he didn’t even have enough money to get the soda anyway, it still sucked. Robotics class kept sucking too, since the monotone professor kept reminding Calum of the project -- which, even though he had almost done, he was still freaking out about. A party did not sound like the kind of thing he wanted to do at the moment. Not to mention the girl spilling water on him made his mood even worse -- even if it was an accident and the girl was pretty -- so a party was definitely not the way to go. “Uh, maybe later, Mikey. I really have to work on this because--”

“But it’s due in--”

“I still want to get the best grade, okay? My professor hates me and I don’t want to screw this up. I want to get a good job, y’know.” Calum pouted, crossing his arms and she let out a ‘d’aww’ that he skillfully ignored.

But, even then, whenever he reached the inside of his shop after what seemed like an hour, he was excited to see that his tools were still there from last night. And everything would be okay.

**.x.**

Calum was covered in sweat, grease and a little buzzed from his caffeine high, and he still was able to ignore the redhead whining about Luke being an asshole and leaving right whenever they stepped in the building. Still thinking about the project for his final that his professor had given him two months ago, Calum was trying to be excited for it. Mikey had already helped him out with a design, making sure that Calum had kept the A the robot was going to have on its chest. Calum remembered asking her to work on the robot’s hard drive, since Mikey was good at that kind of stuff and Calum was already stressing too much about the damn project anyway. It had taken him a month to come up with a sketch, and as soon as he found it appealing, he began working on it. Feeling content with the sketch, he had gathered up all that he needed, with Mikey and Luke’s help, and began working on what was going to be the best project ever.

And that led him back right up to that moment, with a buzzing Mikey fluttering around his shoulders, suddenly asking very obvious questions that had very obvious answers. “Alright, Mr. I-know-everything, what do you do whenever you first--”

“I’m not answering this, Michelene.” Calum muttered from over his shoulder, not daring to look back at the redhead (whose hair color obviously came from a box) as he continued to tinker with the two pieces of metal in his hands. “And I never said I was a know-it-all, I was just saying that I think I know what I’m doing for my robot more than you do.” There was a scoff that came from the opposite side of Calum’s workplace, a little shop on the corner of the street that had his apartment complex above him. Mikey would always come in to check up on him to make sure he had been sleeping the night before, those damn maternal instincts -- although, sometimes she would just pop in or just stay over like she was doing right now -- and truth was, Calum _didn’t_ sleep. _At all_.

Though, Mikey was already getting on his nerves. Calum was _already_ a bit frustrated with the way the project was looking -- he couldn’t even get the eye sockets on the face straightened and symmetrical to each other for a solid week and a half -- and having a buzzing redhead behind him cracking jokes surprisingly did not make him feel any better. But still, the girl with the eyebrow piercing sat down next to him, her shoulders lifted in amusement and her dark pink lips curved up in a smile, and so Calum _had_ to look at her, even though he was currently planning on welding a piece of metal to another piece. He set down his equipment, propped his mask up, and finally glanced over at her.

“What?”

“Does the microchip I made you work?” Mikey was good at computers and gaming and wiring and everything along those lines, that was what she was majoring in, and so Calum wasn’t really surprised, but thankful, whenever Mikey had agreed to make a chip for his project. He didn’t want the robot’s hard drive to be compared too much to Mikey's personality though (because they both did not need another her, regardless of the redhead’s boyfriend’s complaints), and so he had asked for specific requirements for the robot’s processes and such.

“I-I don’t know to be honest. I was more worried about finishing up his limbs than him working.” Mikey arched an eyebrow at the other boy’s answer and Calum continued to work, grabbing his gear once more and he told the girl to back up before starting to weld the two pieces together. “Is that crazy?”

“Well, the whole thing is crazy.” The project started out as one to help Calum (or really anyone) for anything, since he was supposed to have a motive for building this piece -- that was what his college professor had asked for -- and Calum had really wanted to pass the final but he had gotten so into it that he even had plans for a better body for the robot. “ _You’re_ crazy,” Mikey tapped his chin, a grin on his face, “I like that.”

“And you’re taken, don’t forget that.” Calum muttered, looking back at the piece of metal he had welded together earlier. “I _am_ crazy.” It wasn’t so much of a joking tone in his voice, and Mikey immediately caught up on that.

“No, you aren’t, I was just joking. Well, maybe I wasn’t, but you’re a good kind of crazy, that's why we're friends. You’re an inventor. You’re going to build this robot and wire it up and you’re gonna fuckin’ ace your final, and then… I don’t know. Who knows? So, what kinda robot are you building? What is it supposed to even do, anyway?” The redhead asked, changing the topic and Calum smiled at himself, lifting the mask up and turning around to face the older girl.

“I dunno. It’s just a robot. A friend.” He explained wistfully, shrugging a shoulder and smiled at the redhead.

“Just make sure it doesn’t start to run the navy.”

“Not the navy!” Calum shouted, mocking Squidward from that one _Spongebob Squarepants_ episode and Mikey laughed, a smirk tugging at her lips. “Anyway, I’ll make sure he doesn’t run the navy, okay?”

“ _He_?”

The question made the conversation and lighthearted mood stop and Calum immediately pulled his mask down. Mikey had always heard Calum talk about the robot using male pronouns and she always used them, but she hadn’t ever questioned it until now.

“I-I meant _it_ ,” Calum said nervously, turning away from the redhead and he continued to work. Mikey sighed, pulling out her phone and started to type away at it, leaving Calum in silence. Well, it was almost silent, since the girl would laugh at something Luke had texted or would tell him a joke, but other than that and the sound of steel being welded together and the soft pitter-patter of Mikey’s thumbs on her phone's screen, it was silent.

About two hours later, Luke had actually shown back up and greeted both of them with the scent of pasta in both of his hands. “My mum made it…” he said sheepishly, but Mikey took it without another word, walking upstairs, going on about how hungry she was and how Calum only had some abandoned granola bars tucked away somewhere underneath the pieces of shrapnel that she was _sooo_ not going to grab and dig around for. Calum just rolled his eyes and lifted his mask up to look at the tall blond.

“Thanks for coming over with food.” Calum admitted, smirking as he tried to wipe the sweat off of his forehead (he gave up after not succeeding, and eventually took his mask off to do it instead). Luke shrugged, a smile on his lips and Calum caught sight of a stud on the left side of his bottom lip, instead of the trademark lip ring. “No ring?”

“Eh, I already had the stud in. You didn’t notice? Also, it’s no big deal. Michelene texted me how she was hungry and wanted to keep you company, and I decided to come over with food since who knows when you’ve eaten.” Luke nudged his shoulder, changing it back to the topic of food and Calum winced whenever his stomach growled.

“I’ve eaten, thank you very much, I am a growing boy.” He then mentally cursed himself, because did he really just say that to his best mate? Whatever, Luke could get over it -- and the blond was a growing boy too, so Calum didn’t want to hear it. “I ate lunch, you know.”

“When?”

Calum paused, tapping his chin. “I think it was at noon.”

“But it’s dinnertime now, so come on. Get cleaned up and come upstairs, you can worry about your robot later.” Luke smiled, grabbing a hold of the boy’s wrist and Calum rolled his eyes. “And not a word about your due date, you have until May to do it and it is currently January thirteenth.”

“Thank you, you calendar…” Calum muttered. “But he isn’t even finished and I don’t even know if he works or not and--”

“That can wait until after dinner, but only for a little while because then you need sleep.”

“Jeez… You’re just as bad as Mikey.”

As a response, Luke just smirked, and Calum was definitely going to smack his arm if he said ‘great minds think alike’. Luke took off Calum’s gloves and the rest of his gear, throwing off his boots and leaving them in a heap on the floor near where he was welding. Calum let him do it, since he was suddenly too hungry to even care, but he needed to get back to finishing the robot since he didn’t know how well it was going to work. He had finished with the arms and now, the legs, and the fingers and head and body, but they were all just hollow shells until he could get Mikey to help him with the wiring and technically, they were all pieces of metal until they were placed together. But, holding that in the back of his mind, the scent of sauce and pasta and bread entered his mind and he could feel his mouth salivating just by thinking of it. Suddenly, dragging the Kiwi boy up the stairs to his kitchen wasn’t much of a fight, and after washing his hands, Calum was sitting down at the table along with his two friends eating the pasta the blond had brought over.

“You’re not gonna wash your face off?” Mikey asked, almost mid-bite and she refrained herself to not take a bite until she asked the question. For what reason, Calum wasn't really sure, because Mikey almost never did that. Calum just shook his head and ate in silence.

“What are you gonna name it?” It was Luke’s turn to ask a question, and even though Calum had been pondering this question again and again, he still had nothing. There was the design of the A being placed on the robot’s metal chest, but he had no idea on what to name him. “How about, Awesome-inator 3000?” Mikey snorted into her pasta at the sudden name, and Luke swatted his arm. “It’s cool, okay?”

“Yeah, whatever you say.” Mikey laughed, rolling her eyes at her boyfriend’s name selection. Calum tapped his chin. He didn’t really know about naming a robot _Awesome-inator 3000_ for his robotics final, especially with his professor who never seemed to love anything Calum did or turned in. It had to start with an A, though, because that was what was going to be on the robot’s chest. Calum even made sure it had red metal so the A stood out more (he found it kind of funny, since it reminded him of the book he read in high school, but it meant more to him than that). But what could the name be? He kind of stared off into space for a little before it suddenly clicked. “How about like, Aussie--”

“Ashton.”

He suddenly remembered that was the name Mikey suggested two months ago whenever Calum was sketching him out, so why not? The others stared at him, still trying to contain their giggles from Awesome-inator 3000, but Luke slowly nodded his head, trying to hide a knowing smirk, instead replacing it with a smile. “Ashton’s a cute name.”

“You think so?” Calum asked and Mikey copied her boyfriend’s actions before taking another bite of pasta, glancing up at the blond with a smile on her face. Calum smiled a little to himself.

_Ashton was a perfect name. Thank you, Mikey._

**.x.**

After saying goodbye to the couple, with a promise of going to bed early (which, got thrown out the window almost immediately -- he just had to make Luke and Mikey convinced he was going to sleep), Calum was back down in his workshop, welding until the dawn, making and connecting the pieces together. He’d even read up on wiring, since he was tired of waiting for Mikey to say something about it and waiting to deal with it, which had taken him most of the night to do. He was good at wiring, he had to be, but he wasn’t _exactly_ the best and that was why he needed the help of the redhead, but he was too lazy to call her up and he also didn’t want to get scolded to go back to bed. The reading had made his head hurt (but that also may have been because he burned his face a little since he needed to weld the toes and he couldn’t see what he was doing). As the little mechanic clock that his mother had gotten him struck around 7 AM, Calum was worn out.

He had a put-together robot, but he was worn out.

All he had to do was insert the chip into the robot’s scanner on his chest, and he was set. Sure, he’d have to make adjustments, but really he was closer to the end than he was the beginning. He inserted the card and watched as how the robot’s red eye sockets glowed, the robot itself turning on and Calum jumped so high in the air that he almost landed wrong and almost fell backwards.

He watched as the robot watched him, and they watched each other. “Alright… Take one.” Calum said, knowing the robot had cameras in his eyes to record and remember everything that had happened. “Okay, so… I just stayed up all night, Ashton, making you. I am Calum Hood. Your maker. Your name is Ashton. Can you please tell me your name?”

“My name is Ashton.” Ashton said, his voice a little higher than Luke’s but not as high as Mikey's, just like Calum’s, except for it was nice and sweet -- it sounded older than Calum’s voice and the boy decided not to dwell too much on that. He didn’t need to get jealous of a _robot_. An actual _robot, his_ talking robot!

Ashton seemed to be excited whenever Calum showed that he was happy he was working, repeating the sentence for Calum again, and Calum’s eyes grew wide. Mikey probably added something that made Ashton register if someone was happy or threatening -- and Calum was definitely sure that Mikey had made the robot recognized the person Ashton was going to be seeing most.

“No way, y-you’re talking! I’m so happy!” He cheered and the robot turned its head a little before glancing back at the boy in front of him.

“My name is Ashton.”

“What do you see, Ashton? Look around you!” Calum urged, getting ahead of himself due to the fact that his hands were shaking and his mouth was stuck up in a permanent smile.

“My name is Ashton.” The robot repeated, getting excited again.

“I know, but what do you see? Anything! Give me anything. That chair over there? What color is it?”

“My name is Ashton.”

Calum paused, arching an eyebrow over at the gray-colored robot. He sighed once he realized what he had done, though, and looked down at the floor. The robot kept opening its mouth, muttering out the same four words that Calum had asked him to speak once like it was trying to urge Calum into being excited again. Or, at least that was what it seemed like to him. A little upset, Calum reached over and opened up the slots for the chips, taking out the one and only chip there was in there, and Ashton went dead while in the middle of his sentence, its head lowering.

This wasn’t a minor problem, was it? All he needed to have Mikey do was update the chip, adding a vocabulary of words and a learning process for the robot’s speech. He probably should have mentioned that while Mikey was making the chip…

Looking down at the slumped over robot that had suddenly fallen and clattered to the floor, he sighed and trudged upstairs to his bedroom, not even bothering to clean himself up and he (accidentally) fell asleep on the floor. Not that the bed didn’t look inviting, it did, but Calum didn’t want to move an inch after wasting all that time on a robot who kept saying his name was Ashton.

At least he got the name right, though, and so that drove Calum to maybe thinking about not giving up.


	2. take two, i guess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikey and Luke are invited over to see Calum's robot, so maybe -- just maybe -- Mikey might be able to fix the robot who keeps saying "my name is Ashton." Because really, that's all that Calum wants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello friends! back with more cashton xx hope you enjoy!

“...No, I mean, I had wired him and shit, which now that I think about it -- you should check those, but I just need for you to update the chip. I forgot to mention stuff whenever you were downloading data… Like a vocabulary and a learning process, and for him not to repeat ‘My name is Ashton’ over and over and over again!” Calum talked frantically into the receiver of his cell phone, staring up at the ceiling of his kitchen. He hadn’t gone back downstairs since last night, but he had the chip in his hand (which he also refused to look at). He was being overdramatic, and Mikey almost called him a drama queen because of it, but he was _so_ looking forward to actually having a conversation with his robot, _thank you very much_.

“S’okay, Calum, just _Calum_ down.” Mikey laughed at her own joke, and Calum would’ve laughed if he hadn’t been so tired and so, _so_ frustrated. He had started off sleeping, but then he just couldn’t sleep anymore and he ended up eating half of a tub of ice cream while watching _Meet the Robinsons_ and _Robots_ and that wasn’t really the best way to take his mind off of the situation. “I’ll handle it, okay? I’ll come back today and take a look at the chip, and I also want to see how Aussie’s lookin’--”

“It’s Ashton, Michelene. Remember? Or were you too busy eye-fucking Luke to even pay attention?” What had tried to be an insult didn’t really make much sense and there was a small mumble of, “sorry about that,” that came from Calum’s mouth, but Mikey just laughed even harder.

“Well, I mean, I purposely gave Ashton an Aussie accent, so.”

Now, Calum’s face and ears burnt up hot, because, right. Ashton was technically Australian -- if a robot could even _be_ part of an ethnic group, chances are they couldn't -- made in Sydney, by people who lived in Sydney. That was stupid. “Right…” Calum muttered, letting his face drop against the dark wood table. He was surrounded by bills, letters from his parents and his sister, and letters from Luke who, even though no one really does that anymore, handwrote them even though he lives so close. Calum remembered Mikey pouting about it (“how come you never write to me?”) when the truth was, he did write Mikey letters ever since he knew her, besides the rough patch they had, and he was too shy to give them to her. Mikey ended up finding them and always wanted more and so Luke had to buy more stationeries for writing. What could you expect from an author, anyway? Not that Calum didn’t feel bad, and so he promised to secretly pitch in and buy a few stationeries for the blond boy. It was the least he could do.

Calum realized he had zoned Mikey out, but was quickly snapped back into place whenever the redheaded girl asked, “Dude, what if Ashton came back to life and walked up the stairs, like… What would you even do?”

(Calum could hear Luke laughing in the background.)

“This is not a video game, Mikey, Ashton would need his hard drive to work.” Calum deadpanned, a small smile tugging at his lips. He really needed a laugh, and even though he started to smile, nothing was working. He lifted his head up and ran a hand through his hair, and suddenly he was thinking about how he needed to re-dye the blond streaks in his black bangs.

“You never know.”

“Well, if he did, he’d just say ‘my name is Ashton’ over and over again until my ears bled and I'd strangle the robot’s metal throat.” Calum said helplessly, watching a bird fly from the window. “But I don’t think that would even work, he’d just continue saying it, over and over…”

“Alright, alright, I’ll be over there in an hour, okay honey?” Mikey suddenly grumbled, obviously upset from something -- and Calum was almost positive it had to do with Luke. She only sounded like that whenever Luke was trying to do stuff over the phone and she was just not having that, and she normally made that known by-- “Lukey, get off. H-Hey, Calum, I gotta go now, Luke is being a pervert.” Though, more times than not the roles were switched, but Calum wasn’t going to point that out.

 _Oh. Okay, thanks Mikey_ , Calum thought and rolled his eyes, finally giving in because he did so not want to hear anything past this point (he had already heard it before, way too many times). “Yeah, yeah, go ahead, just don’t get pregnant.”

“Oh, Cal, if only you knew what it's like to take birth control every day.”

“Not my fault.”

The redhead girl laughed, mumbling out a, “Goodbye loser,” before ending the phone call.

Calum rested his face against the table, ending up falling asleep quicker than he expected with a piece of paper pressed up to his cheek. Being a sophomore in college with a stressful robot downstairs tended to have him barely sleep ever since he got the rubric and the idea for the project and so he took every chance he got whenever he wasn’t working to sleep. Eh, he’d be up in an hour anyway.

**.x.**

Whenever he heard the door open and heard a person bustling around equipment, he knew that Mikey was here and she had brought her computer, just because he knew she’d want to look over Ashton and see how he was doing (disregarding the robot saying the same sentence over and over again). Maybe to take notes? Calum didn’t know, but when he felt a hand rub his back, he groaned and lifted his head, his eyes half open.

“Wow, sleeping beauty. You look worse than Mikey does in the morning.”

 _Thwack!_ A pillow was thrown at Luke’s face from the living room where, Calum assumed, Michael was, setting up his computer, and Calum and Luke both tried to dodge the red pillow his sister got for him. It ended up nailing Luke right on the side of his head though, unfortunately.

“You’re lucky that was a pillow.”

“Whatever, _Lukey,_ you would know how someone looks in the morning, you’re the one that looks like a troll who hasn’t seen daylight in three years whenever you wake up,” Mikey retorted from the safety of the living room and Luke rolled his eyes, looking back toward the black-haired boy at the table.

“She’s totally lying.” Luke whispered and Calum stood up, rolling his eyes as well. “I do not look like a troll who hasn’t seen daylight in three years.”

“You’re right,” Calum snickered, “you look like one that hasn’t seen sunlight for four.”

Mikey’s laughter erupted through the kitchen and living room and Calum made his way over to where the redhead was currently located, Luke following him looking like a kicked puppy. “Aw, it’s okay, Luke, I was just kidding.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Luke sighed, sitting down next to his redheaded girlfriend and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, but Mikey shoved him off and continued typing away at her computer -- a password.

“Alright, I wanna see this Ashton in action.” Mikey said after a moment of typing and clicking.

 _Wow. Mikey was just all full of jokes, wasn’t he?_ Calum thought as Mikey snickered a little to herself, standing up.

“I just sat down,” Luke complained and Mikey grabbed his arm, hoisting him up. “You know, sometimes I don’t know what you want me to do. First we’re standing up, then sitting down, then standing up.”

“You’re only grumpy and irritated because I wouldn’t suck your di--”

“Okay!” Calum interrupted, ignoring the way the two looked at each other with a certain look in their eyes that Calum did not want to get into. “Yes, we’re up and we’re down, Luke, you don’t _have_ to see the robot.”

A smug, little hum came from the back of Mikey’s throat and Luke rolled his eyes. “I wanna see Ashton, though.”

“Then come on.” Calum said half-heartedly, holding the chip in his hand. He knew the first words out of Ashton’s mouth were going to be the same as it was last night, and he didn’t want to show someone like Luke that! It would be embarrassing, not to mention the thought of _Luke would think I’m an idiot if he saw how Ashton acted_. What kind of robotics major can’t wire and set up their own robot’s brain? He just could never figure out the right wires and he already had a friend who was majoring in computer tech. Though, Luke had heard what had happened with Ashton, and he was almost one-hundred percent positive that Mikey had told him. As they headed down the dark stairs -- the light switch being at the bottom of the stairs was really inconsiderate right now -- Luke sighed as he was awkwardly shoved in the middle of their three-person train, thanks to Mikey, and Calum almost wanted to tell them to just go back upstairs.

They made it down to the bottom though, and even though the natural light from the windows were shining through, Calum still flipped on the light switch and made his way over to where he had last left Ashton.

“Wow, you managed to build that entire fuckin’ robot?” Mikey asked and Luke quietly scolded the Kiwi boy for staying up ‘past curfew’ they had placed on him. Luke was younger than Calum was, _he_ should’ve been the one to have a curfew -- though, with his girlfriend, he could be up all night (except for whenever Mikey would push him out of the bed whenever she wasn’t feeling anything Luke was -- Calum’s heard that story over and over again). Whatever. Calum _did_ sleep, just not whenever he was _supposed_ to.

Instead of answering, Calum just looked at all the tools and metal scraps that littered the shop, and there was still a clearing for the desk at the front that he liked to hang out in if there was someone he didn’t want upstairs hanging around. It was kind of stupid, since he didn’t really run a business which is what it was supposed to be used for, but it came with the complex that his mother and sister both were paying for -- Calum still felt guilty -- and he wasn’t going to complain about it. Plus, during freshman year, it came in handy whenever the Tech professor came in and was willing to grade Calum’s final project that he couldn’t even lift off the floor.

Though, come to think of it, it was a stupid project but it got him an A minus and that was more than what Calum needed to pass the class.

“Earth to Calum?” Mikey asked after a moment and Calum looked back at her, brown eyes wide with confusion. “Uh, yeah, so you want me to check the wiring after you’re done showing him off?”

“Y-Yeah,” Calum said, stepping forward and pushing open the robot’s card reader. He pushed the chip in, closing the reader and watching as Ashton’s head lifted. The robot stood up, creaking and standing stiffly, and Calum almost winced hearing the noises.

_He’ll need oil. Maybe._

Ashton’s eyes glowed red and Mikey arched an eyebrow. “You kept the red eyes?”

“They went with the red A, okay? They matched.” Calum retorted over his shoulder, returning his attention to the robot. Calum ignored the ‘he looks kinda evil’ comment directed from Luke. “Take two, I guess,” he muttered, since the cameras were recording. “Okay, Ashton, I have my friends here. Can you tell us your name?”

“My name is Ashton.” Ashton said, his voice still as nice as Calum remembered it and the black-haired boy almost relaxed, but soon realized that he was going to keep repeating the sentence. Mikey laughed like a little kid at a candy store, excited and giddy that she actually heard him talk and Calum almost wanted to rejoice.

“Hi, Ashton. Can you tell me what you see?” Calum asked, his tone getting flatter and flatter with every word he said until it was clear to both Mikey and Luke that Calum was still upset about it. Though, Calum had no reason to. It was probably just a minor fix and he had only been working on Ashton for two months -- he had to give himself credit. He had gone that far in that amount of time and _that_ was pretty impressive to him.

“My name is Ashton.” The robot repeated and Calum physically felt all of the emotion drain from his body, he felt the happiness drain from even the others' bodies behind him. The robot repeated the sentence.

“Oh. Yeah, I see what you mean. I’ll get working on that, then…” Mikey stepped forward and the robot, scrambling back, clashed up against the table. Mikey froze in place and Calum furrowed his eyebrows together. That hadn’t happened before.

“M-my name is Ashton,” the robot said quietly, and Calum didn’t know if he should be happy or terrified that Ashton backed up from Mikey whenever she reached out to grab his chip.

“Hi, Ashton.” Calum said, stepping forward and slightly shoved the redhead to the side, blocking her out of the robot’s view. Ashton tried to look at Mikey, tried to turn his head but Calum made sure to keep the robot’s gaze on him. “Go into sleep mode, Ashton.” The robot straightened its back, realizing the face he had seen before and complied with what the black-haired boy said, and his eyes dimmed as he stood straight, arms hanging loosely at his sides. Ashton’s head lowered. Calum sighed, tapping open the card reader and taking out his hard drive.

Calum almost didn’t want to turn around. Sure, his other projects hadn’t worked out and professors and teachers he had over the years knew that, even his friends knew that, but he had been so excited about this _goddamn robot_ , and all it ended up doing was backing away from his friend, the one who programmed him, and said four words.

“H-Hey,” Mikey said, louder than the three had expected and she cringed. “U-Uh… T-that was kind of my fault. I must’ve forgotten about downloading some stuff… Like, recognizing other faces, yeah?”

“No, it’s fine. It’s… Not going to be a major issue, is it? It'll be smalla than a bug, right?” Calum asked, finally turning around because no one laughed at his small joke. Mikey shifted from foot to foot, playing with her sleeves of his sweater. Calum had realized over the years that it was a nervous tic, something that she subconsciously did every time that she was in trouble or anxious. And every time she did it, the more Calum learned about why she did it. “...It’s gonna be a major issue, isn’t it?”

“No! Well, yes and no.” Mikey shrugged her shoulders. “I mean, I’m gonna have to use a bigger chip, maybe a huge fuckin’ hard drive to keep his memories and languages and words, and his pitch and tone of voice need to be there, and he’s gonna have to have an actual memory for sights, sounds, and learning and--”

“Get to the point, Clifford…” Calum warned, cutting off the redhead from spewing any other wiring stuff.

“What I’m saying is… Ashton’s new and improved hard drive won’t fit in that little space on its chest. I mean, I can try and make it as small as I can, but it's not gonna fit on your model...”

“You mean I’m gonna have to--”

“Remodel him, yeah.”


	3. you have until may

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re gonna have to rewire and move the card reader up behind the neck, so that the hard drive is placed where its spine would be…” Mikey murmured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW SORRY FOR THE SHORT UPDATE ITS JUST THAT I HAD THAT PORTION WRITTEN OUT AND I HAVEN'T UPDATED THIS SINCE 31 DEC AND I FELT BAD  
> i hope i'll start this back up again soon because i've been really busy with tboaf (and in general) and i felt really bad for not updating this :(  
> so sorry this is so short

“Well, I mean, think about it! You made a four foot skinny-ass robot! It’s not gonna fit the memory!”

The three were heading up the stairs with Calum in front of them, his hands shaking as he walked. He was going to have to remodel Ashton?

 _Okay_ , he was definitely freaking out. He’d have to rebuild Ashton to make him function properly? He was thinking of a new body for the robot anyway, but that would be _after_ finals, not _before_ them! There wouldn’t be enough time, and he didn’t have any designs ready and the new body he had in mind would be way too advanced for him right at the moment, because holy shit, he couldn’t even make his damn robot say more than a sentence!

Calum started to block out the redhead coming in from the rear, Luke in between them as they were going down the stairs. “You’re gonna have to rewire and move the card reader up behind the neck, so that the hard drive is placed where its spine would be…” Mikey murmured, shockingly quiet as they made their way back up to the kitchen, and the black-haired boy slumped down on the floor with a painful thud. He groaned.

“Never seen him do that before.” Luke muttered, watching Calum with an arched eyebrow.

Mikey gave a bitter laugh and retorted out, “maybe that’s ‘cause you’re always hangin’ out with your mum instead of _us_ ,” and she stomped over to her computer, huffing a bit to herself. Calum groaned louder.

“Well at least _my_ mum--”

“If you two are gonna fight, get outta my house.” Calum turned himself over so he was laying on his back, staring up at the blond who had his mouth opened, about to tell Calum that it was always Mikey’s fault -- he’s heard that line before too, way too many times. “Zip it, don’t wanna hear it.”

“Alright, let’s talk about what happened with Ashton then. He repeated the sentence, but he moved away from me whenever he sensed that I was going to take out his card.” Mikey said, her hands on her hips like a sassy little girl who didn’t get what she wanted, and Calum sat up to stare at her blankly. “That’s at least something, right?” she tried. “He may be saying the same sentence but he also knows who’s trying to turn him off and who is the one that made him.” Mikey was definitely trying to make him feel better, Calum knew that, but he was just upset because Ashton wasn’t going to work.

Calum’s shoulders slumped. “I just… I just wanted him to work, that’s all.” There were small trickles of tears that sliced down his cheeks and _fuck_ , he was crying about a robot that didn’t work. He had just been so eager to finally get a good grade on a final. Actually, if he thought about it harder, he really had just been so excited to have Ashton speak to him, to have another friend and now that he had to disregard the first sketch was a little saddening. He would definitely hang the A on his chest up somewhere in his shop. Luke and Mikey glanced at each other before sitting down next to him, the two of them sitting on either side of the Kiwi boy.

“We know, and we’re gonna get him to work. I’ll have you sit down with me while I reprogram him, okay? We’re gonna make this work. And we’re gonna get it done and you’re gonna ace the fuckin final, alright?” Mikey nudged Calum’s shoulder with her own, trying to get a smile on the boy’s face.

It worked, though, because they were starting to think that maybe, just maybe, they could actually make this thing work.

“It’ll be like Ashton 2.0.” Luke said, looking up and smiling at the ceiling. “Wouldn’t that be something.”

And, immediately, the trio got up, Luke going to make something to eat while the other two made plans for what they were going to install Ashton 2.0 with, because they seemed to have missed a lot for the original one.

“He needs a memory but also sensory stuff too,” Calum mumbled, writing it down on a piece of paper so they would be able to reference back to it. Mikey nodded, continued to scribble out ideas until her piece of paper was full of scratched out things, full of messy handwriting and doodles of Luke making lunch.

Calum only came up with a few things, since he was more upset about having to change the appearance of Ashton than anything. Sure, Ashton’s metal pieces clanked together and scraped up against things, and definitely needed oil in some parts, but he had just made the pieces fit together _yesterday_. He grumbled as Luke called them out to eat, and Mikey tugged on his arm to make him stand.

“You’re gonna be okay, you have until May. Hey, that rhymed!” She said and held the boy’s hand, making them drop the pieces of paper they had in their hands. “We’re gonna be okay, we have until May!” she started to sing, and Luke smiled at his girlfriend as they walked into the kitchen. “I’m surprised you even found things to cook with, Lukey.”

“Hey, I go shopping, I have a social life too, you know. Piss off.” Calum muttered but gave a smile at the redhead to let her know he was only joking. “It’s just I’ve been working on Ashton, but not good enough, apparently.”

“Let’s not talk about Ashton for right now, okay?” Luke asked, setting down some macaroni and cheese with some hotdogs. “This was the best that I could do, you know...”

“You only seem to know how to make pasta, don’t you, Luke?” Mikey rolled her eyes but took a seat anyway, starting to dig in. Calum hesitantly took a seat afterwards, starting to eat and thanking Luke for making some lunch. He was really starting to get hungry, but Luke always seemed to swoop in right on time and deliver something. He was like a delivery boy but with all sorts of food. Luke sat down as well, grabbing a red bottle from the middle of the table, which he had set out, and opened the lid, squirting out some ketchup onto the cheesy noodles. Mikey looked over at the blond, arching an eyebrow. “Are you adding ketchup on your mac and cheese?”

“Yeah?” Luke arched an eyebrow, copying the girl's action. “Hush, you’re not eating my mac and cheese, are you? I can do what I want.” Luke paused before adding, “my mum lets me do this all the time and she doesn’t say anything about it.”

“Fantastic, Lukey,” Mikey deadpanned. “I’m so glad your mother doesn’t care if you put ketchup on your mac and cheese.”

“And neither should you.” Luke added, taking a dramatic chop of the noodles on his spoon. It was quiet between the two of them once more, and Calum was left to his own thoughts. He wondered how he was going to be able to make Ashton 2.0. He wanted to make him as lifelike as possible -- hey, science and technology have done it already, so why couldn’t he? -- but he just needed a model on how to make him look like a human. He would use Luke as an example, but he wasn’t too sure Luke or Mikey would like that.

He’ll have to talk to Mikey about it, since she would be the one helping him anyway. He didn't really know if that was acceptable or not, and he felt like he was cheating the system, but it wouldn't really matter. Maybe at this point he didn't care about a good grade. Maybe. Maybe all he wanted was someone else to call a friend.


End file.
